Paul Roos Gymnasium is a public, dual medium (Afrikaans & English) high school for boys in the town of
Stellenbosch in the
Western Cape province of
South Africa, which opened on 1 March 1866 as Stellenbosch Gymnasium. It is the 12th oldest school in the country.[1]
History
In 1910, the school was renamed Stellenbosch Boys' High School. In 1946 the school moved to new buildings in Krigeville and was renamed Paul Roos Gymnasium after
Paul Roos, old boy and captain of the first Springbok team, was himself a teacher at the school, and was the school's rector from 1910 to 1940, after which the school was renamed in his honour.
A notable characteristic of the school is its gees (Afrikaans for spirit) and their famous
fight song "Old boys of Paul Roos" which has the melody of "Flower of Scotland" in remembrance of the first three Scottish rectors, which they sing with their old boys.[2]
Though Paul Roos Gymnasium is a school for boys from grade 8 to 12, the curriculum includes some subjects presented in conjunction with the two sister schools,
Hoër Meisieskool Bloemhof and
Rhenish. The school is dual medium;[3] Afrikaans- and English-speaking pupils study under one roof, but classes are largely separated according to mother tongue. The school shares sport and internet facilities with
Stellenbosch University.
School facilities include a library and computer labs. Sports facilities include hockey fields, the Markötter rugby fields, a swimming pool, an Olympic Waterpolo Aquatic Centre, tennis courts, and a gymnasium.
The main residential facilities are the two school hostels (dormitories) called Prima and Prima Nova. They accommodate 245 boarders, mainly from
South Africa and
Namibia.
Sport
Paul Roos Gymnasium participates in the following sports:
Paul Roos was classified as a 'prestige' school, being among the best-performing schools.[4]
In 2018 the University of Stellenbosch, which evolved out of this school, celebrated its centenary. In the first 100 years of its existence, 26 old boys received honorary doctorates from this university, more than any other school. Also, since the inception of the Chancellor's Medal in 1961, thirteen old boys were awarded this medal for the best final year student by
Stellenbosch University.
Notable alumni
This article's list of alumni may not follow Wikipedia's
verifiability policy. Please
improve this article by removing names that do not have independent
reliable sources showing they merit inclusion in this article AND are alumni, or by incorporating the relevant publications into the body of the article through appropriate
citations.(September 2020)
Schalk Pienaar, former editor of Die Burger and Die Beeld, prominent Afrikaans critic of Apartheid – for which he received the Order of Ikhamanga in Silver
^van Onselen, Charles (2003). "The Modernization of the Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek: F. E. T. Krause, J. C. Smuts, and the Struggle for the Johannesburg Public Prosecutor's Office, 1898-1899". Law and History Review. 21 (3). American Society for Legal History: 483–525.
doi:
10.2307/3595118.
JSTOR3595118.